STUDENT Luke Campbell was killed by three drug dealers out for "bloody revenge", according to the QC prosecuting the trio.

Nigel Lickley said that, on the night of his stabbing, Luke, 20, fled through back streets pursued by a Mercedes containing Larbi Mohamed, Saeed Alkadir and Delaine Brown.

He said the attack, on November 7, last year followed an incident the previous day in which one of the gang, who all denied murder, was cut.

But Mr Lickley said Luke may have been a tragic victim of mistaken identity.

The prosecution said that the attackers in Bournemouth could have really been out to confront one of Luke's friends, Jamie Henry, who lived in the area.

Mr Lickley said: "The defendants were after bloody revenge for the insult they suffered the day before.

"This was no spur-of-the-moment thing. They wanted to leave a mark."

He said Luke suffered a "deep, penetrating" stab wound to the chest inflicted by a 15cm knife.

Mr Lickley said the defendants were known drug dealers who originally came from South London.

He said that on the day before Luke's death, Mohamed was in a confrontation which involved Luke and two friends which left him with a small stab wound.

On the night of Luke's death, he said Alkadir, 22, of Lambeth, Mohamed, 21, from Southwark, and Brown, 22, of Wyndham, visited a friend and borrowed a clutch of kitchen knives, later returning them with blood on them.

The court was told Luke was attacked as he was cycling down the road on his green BMX bike to deliver a small amount of cannabis to another friend.

The gang "sprang into action", the jury was told, eventually forcing Luke to abandon his bike to try to lose them.

But in trying to escape through the garden of a house on St Clement's Road, he became trapped as the house backed on to the main railway line between Bournemouth and London, it was alleged.

Mr Lickley said Brown stabbed Luke with the blade, with Alkadir watching and Mohamed waiting in the car.

The court was shown CCTV footage of Brown getting half-way out of the car and making a grab for Luke, a former pupil at Murray Park School in Mickleover, and missing.

Brown told the court that he had the knife in the front pocket of his hooded top but denied deliberately stabbing Luke after he chased him into an alley.

He said: "As I got there I couldn't see anybody and as I'm going to turn round, I felt the knife drop out of my pocket.

"As I've gone to pick it up I heard movement behind me. As I've heard the movement I've automatically reacted to the movement behind me. I tensed up, expecting something.

"Someone was just on me as if he was trying to force me to the floor. I tried to get him off."

Mr Henry told the court none of his group had been carrying a weapon at the time of the incident when Mohamed was injured and said he had no idea how the cut happened.